Haunting Memories
by KakuzuV1
Summary: *Warning* May contain Yuffentine. *Update* The story is set after the FF7 game and pre-DoC, where Vincent, who is haunted by his past, begins to realize that his memories are taking physical form. Can a cute spunky ninja save him? Critiques/opinions are welcomed/needed. I am always looking to improve on my story. This is my first story, so please try to be respectful.


***Disclaimer: I do not own Squaresoft, Final Fantasy or any of the characters portrayed in my story (If I did, I would have made a remake of the game, including love/romances between characters. It is what everyone wants and you know it!).***

**Chapter one**

_Monster vs. Monster: Survival of the fittest_

The sky was filled with dark clouds, as rain poured down from the heavens. One man, soaking wet, was seeking shelter in a nearby cave. This man was named Vincent Valentine. He looked back, as if worried something was behind him; following him.

Vincent was exhausted, both physically and mentally. For days, he had been fighting for his life while trying to escape his powerful enemy. This was no normal enemy: this enemy was enormous in size, but quick as lightning. It was also able to climb mountains, which helped it find its target from a distance. This enemy was known...as WEAPON. Sapphire Weapon to be exact. A being of pure power, which did not know the meaning of 'giving up'. WEAPON's goal was simple: dispose of its target, no matter what the cost. The only problem was that its target was none other than Vincent Valentine.

Vincent was looking at his inventory bag and noticed he was very low on ethers and potions, and his current materia was not helping his cause. He only had the mastered materia Odin + Added Effect inside the Death Penalty, which was an excellent chained materia combination, because of the possibility of causing instant death to its enemies, but WEAPON was immune to this. '_Not good_.' he thought to himself.

The reason why his materia was so limited was that years back, Yuffie begged everyone for their materia after their confrontation with Sephiroth, explaining that they would no longer need their materia anymore. Vincent was the first to step up to give away his materia, to Yuffie, without hesitation. He only asked her if he could keep the two pieces of materia in question, should future problems arise. Yuffie, surprised at how willingly Vincent gave away his materia, could not think of anything else than smile and comply with his request.

Unfortunately, he now wished that he had his materia back. At this rate, he was bound to run out of supplies; Vincent would then be unable to recover and fall victim to WEAPON's wrath, if he did not do something soon. His PHS (cell phone) was broken was months now, so he had not been in contact was his teammates, dare he say it, friends, in the longest of times. In fact, Vincent had not seen his friends since, only replying to very few phone calls whenever he felt like talking. His procrastination to have his PHS fixed has now, possibly led to his downfall. _'Most of my life, I believed that I didn't need friends. Now, when I need them most, I cannot contact them. How ironic.' _he thought, then sighed.

Being around his friends for so long, he started caring for others once again, as well for the lives of innocent people. He did not wish to get any innocent bystanders involved with his fight, so he was forced to lure WEAPON away from any town or village. Should Vincent not be able to elude or tame this beast, he would be willing to sacrifice his own life if it meant to save everyone else. "A monster like me doesn't deserve to live anyways..." he kept telling himself "...but everyone else's life has meaning. This would be my gift to them, even if they would never know of what happened."

Just then, he heard a loud roar, not far in the distance. 'WEAPON is getting closer.' he thought, jumping to his feet. He did not have much time before it found him. Still, many questions Vincent has been pondering to himself, ever since he first met this particular WEAPON, came to his mind, all at once. How did it come into existence? Why now? Why was it after him? Such questions, he could not answer. He was completely oblivious.

Many versions of WEAPON came from the Crater once Sephiroth threatened the Planet. Sapphire Weapon was not among them, that he was sure of. Well almost. Seeing it many times recently, he knew it was indeed real, and only two possibilities came to mind: one, it somehow concealed itself from everyone all these years; two, is recently came out of the Crater. Either way, he was in trouble.

Another roar was heard, much closer than before. There was no more time to rest; he couldn't run anymore, so he was forced to fight, until one of them fell in battle. Vincent knew that he had to make the first attack before WEAPON found him. He didn't waste time summoning Odin to distract and damage WEAPON, while he tried to get around. Vincent shot several rounds in WEAPON's back while it was still trying to shake off Odin's attack. It quickly turned around, staring at Vincent with angry eyes.

Sapphire Weapon swung its claws at Vincent, as he dodged each physical attack with difficulty. His movements in battle were not as they normally would be. Fatigue had taken its toll on him, thus making this battle much harder for him. On the plus side, WEAPON seemed to be slowing down as well; perhaps Vincent had injured it enough the previous encounters that they had. He tried his best to keep his distance from the beast, while taking a shot or two at it. Noticing that none of its physical attacks were working, WEAPON, once it was able to close the gap between them, unleashed a devastating attack that Vincent tried, but failed to avoid: Shadow Flare**1**.

Vincent fell to one knee, keeping an eye on the enemy before him. It stopped moving, possibly needing time to recover from using such a powerful attack. Vincent pulled out a few of the remaining potions that he had and quickly used them on himself. That was all the time he had to recover, as WEAPON continued to attack him. At this point, Vincent had almost nothing left in him to keep going. His eye lids began to fail him, having the sudden urge to close, due to all the exhaustion. He quickly re-opened them, realizing what was happening, but it was too late.

WEAPON attacked Vincent, claw marks now appearing on his chest, knocking him into the side of a mountain. His gun flew out of his hand, landing a few feet in front of him. As he crawled to pick it up with his right hand, WEAPON took this chance to step on his entire arm. An intense amount of pain surged into Vincent's entire body. In desperation, he swiped at WEAPON with his claw-like arm, but it was to no avail. WEAPON was un-phased; unaffected. Vincent felt so helpless at this moment; he was at WEAPON's mercy. 'This is it...' he thought, knowing he had no weapon and no materia to protect him from the onslaught coming from the monster that was named Sapphire Weapon.

That's when it happened. A new pain coming from his left arm. A familiar pain. He was transforming, into a monstrous beast which he despised from the bottom of his heart. There was little that he could do to prevent the transformation, he was in too much pain to fight it, but at the same time, Vincent knew that this was his last chance to survive.

He was no longer Vincent Valentine. He was now the beast within; Chaos finally revealed itself. Sapphire Weapon backed away a few steps. Whether it was afraid or just being cautious of Chaos, WEAPON definitely took notice to this new threat. Chaos attacked it relentlessly as WEAPON could only try to defend itself at this time. Sapphire Weapon was unable to fly, so landing an attack was extremely difficult for it. Chaos definitely had the advantage. He shouted or actually screeched in a language that only Vincent himself could understand "_Chaos Saber_**2**_!_". The attack was successful; not only that, it severed WEAPON's right claw. Sapphire Weapon screamed in pain, as blood came from its horrible wound. It backed away from the flying beast, perhaps actually showing fear from its enemy. Chaos took this opportunity to use his strongest attack: "_Satan Slam_**3**_!_" Chaos screeched.

One last scream came from WEAPON as it finally, crashed to the ground. Chaos expressing a roar of victory, failed to take notice of WEAPON was able to list its head for one final attack, which was coming straight at Chaos: Sapphire Beam**4**. At the last second, Chaos tried to protect himself by covering himself with its own wings, but sadly, it wasn't enough. Chaos was hit in his chest by WEAPON's beam and sent flying into the air by the force of the attack...

**1** : Shadow Flare - Hits one opponent for nearly all of their HP.

**2** : Chaos Saber - Assaults all enemies with a great fire blast.

**3** : Satan Slam - A huge skull appears beneath the enemies and either instantly defeats them all or causes massive damage with flaming skulls.

**4** : Sapphire Beam (similar to Emerald Beam, but not as powerful): This attack hits all opponents for a fraction of the their health and can dispel Regen.


End file.
